Ministry of Human Resource Development

The Ministry of Human Resource Development, formerly Ministry of Education (until 25 September 1985), is responsible for the development of human resources in India. The Ministry is divided into two departments: the Department of School Education and Literacy, which deals with primary, secondary and higher secondary education, adult education and literacy, and the Department of Higher Education, which deals with university education, technical education, scholarship etc. The erstwhile Ministry of Education now functions under these two departments, as of 26 September 1985.

Department of School Education and Literacy

The Department of School Education and Literacy is responsible for development of school education and literacy in the country. It works on "universalisation of education" and for the cultivation of higher standards for citizenship among the youth of India.

Department of Higher Education

The Department of Higher Education is in charge of secondary and post-secondary education. The department is empowered to grant deemed university status to educational institutions on the advice of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India, under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956.[2][3][4] The Department of Higher Education takes care of one of the largest higher education systems of the world, just after the United States and China. The department is engaged in bringing world-class opportunities of higher education and research to the country so that Indian students are not found lacking when facing an international platform. For this, the government has launched joint ventures and signed MoUs to help the Indian student benefit from the world opinion. The technical education system in the country can be broadly classified into three categories – Central Government funded institutions, State Government/State-funded institutions & Self-financed institutions. The 122 Centrally funded institution of technical and science education are as under: List of CFTIs (Centrally Funded Technical Institutions): IIITs (4 – Allahabad, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Kancheepuram), IITs (16), IIMs (13), IISc, IISER (5), NITs (30), NITTTRs (4), and 9 others (SPA, ISMU, NERIST, SLIET, NITIE & NIFFT, CIT)[5]

Organisational structure

The department is divided into eight bureaus, and most of the work of the department is handled through over 100 autonomous organisations under these bureaus.[6]

Objectives

Formulating the National Policy on Education and to ensure that it is implemented in letter and spirit

Planned development, including expanding access and improving quality of the educational institutions throughout the country, including in regions where people do not have easy access to education.

Paying special attention to disadvantaged groups like the poor, females and the minorities

Provide financial help in the form of scholarships, loan subsidy, etc. to deserving students from deprived sections of the society.

Encouraging international cooperation in the field of education, including working closely with the UNESCO and foreign governments as well as Universities, to enhance the educational opportunities in the country.

Criticisms

The MHRD and its set up JoSAA was criticised by Education web portals like Careers 360, for not conducting urgent spot rounds, for over more than 3,000 seats vacant in NITs, GFTIs, and IITs. It was reported that more than 100 seats are vacant in IITs. As a result, thousands of engineering aspirants joined Careers 360 campaign for conducting urgent spot rounds, and mailed to MHRD officials. However, the MHRD set up admission conducting authority Joint Seat Allocation Authority refused to conduct spot round.[19] The decision of Joint Seat Allocation Authority agency of MHRD shattered the hopes of thousands of engineering aspirants across India. According to a leading Indian newspaper The Indian Express as of 2016, more than 1500 seats across NIT are vacant But the lack of motive from MHRD To conduct spot rounds, is the reason behind it.[20]

The MHRD which is responsible for over-looking the quality of education haven't implemented a uniform syllabus for Intermediate syllabus, i.e. Class XI and XII science syllabus. Thus creating problems for the state board students who lacked the knowledge of NCERT and CBSE syllabus for clearing highly competitive Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and NEET formerly known as AIPMT As a result, State Board students ended up getting low scores, and shattering their Aspirations in getting into premier Medical and Engineering institutes across the nation.

It failed to bring a single medical entrance exam NEET in the country, which was brought by the Supreme Court of India by a Verdict passed by the Supreme Court in April 2016.[22]

The MHRD have no fee regulatory policy for private medical colleges, thus they can charge 50 lakhs to 1 crore as admission fee and donation fee for admission of students under Management quota. They can also charge anywhere between 8 lakh-20 lakh for admission under general category; moreover private medical colleges earns 1 crore{approx 1 million USD} per seat by selling these seats to NRI/Foreigners. The noteworthy thing is that MHRD doesn't intervene.[23][24]

During the academic year of 2015, MHRD made almost 14 crores (approx 2 million USD) while JoSAA counselling, as there was no option for fee refund of 45,000/-rs for GEN/OBC and 20,000Rs for SC/ST Candidates paid just for accepting the seat, whereas more than 3200 seats remained vacant.[25]

Spot round controversy

According to the statistics put out by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority for 92 institutes including the 22 IITs, 31 NITs and 18 other government funded technical institutes, after the final allotment, 3,195 seats were vacant across institutes after six rounds of counselling. Whereas 1,518 seats are vacant at NITs, 407 of these are vacant at IIITs, 73 at the IITs, 1,174 at other government-funded technical institutions and 23 at Indian School of Mines.[27] But according to Indian Media, in reality, more than 3000 seats are vacant.

According to a report by the Times of India, around 4000-5000 seats at the National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Information Technology and Government Funded Technology Institutes were left unfilled after JoSAA's 6th round of counselling. Parents and students have written to the Minister Prakash Javadekar and ministry officials requesting that a spot round be conducted, but JoSAA has stated that such a round will not be held.

According to Economic Times, however, amid the Heavy Protests by students and parents who had petitioned to Hon President of India for intervening and MHRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, and wrote many grievances to the Ministry. MP Sushmita Dev from Assam showed compassion towards students and became the voice of students, meeting with the MHRD Minister and demanding urgent Spot round. She also said she would move to court if students interests are compromised.

Initially according to reports from various reliable sources for the academic year 2016-2017,It was reported that MHRD is going to conduct a spot round soon. .[28][29] .[30]

However, an MHRD spokesmen said that the MHRD would not conduct spot round for the academic year 2016-2017 as it was mentioned by the Supreme Court guidelines that the academic session at NITs and IITs should finish by 10 August, and the MHRD ministry tweeted that Minister Prakash Javadekar sympathised with the students and sincerely wanted to conduct spot round, but the deadline is over. But aspirants said that Joint Seat Allocation Authority counselling was over on 20 July and the deadline was 10 AUGUST and questioned MHRD why it didn't conducted spot round in that time.

According to Times of India, Congress party`s Member of ParliamentSushmita Dev met with the then MHRD minister and opined that he might be misinformed by his officers, since for the academic year 2015, the Supreme Court had directed Central seat allocation board to fill up 3000 vacant seats, and the Honourable Supreme Court of India had also intervened when there as bifurcation of seats in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, extending the dates for admission process. She requested the MHRD minister to tell his officers to get ready with all the necessary documents related to the subject for appealing in the Supreme Court of India. [31]

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